Federal jurisdiction; appeal value in a priority dispute between pledge creditors: where the litigation concerns only the question which of two competing creditors is to be satisfied first from the proceeds of a pledged object up to the amount of the smaller claim, the amount in dispute for federal appeal purposes is limited to that smaller amount and not to the value of the pledged object itself; if the statutory threshold is not reached, the Federal Court must, ex officio, decline to enter into the appeal (consid. 1-3).